Today, various numbers and types of open, diverse transportation networks allow for travel between origins and destinations on one or more roadways or railroads, or air or sea routes, in a nearly limitless number of vehicles. Such networks are versatile enough to permit passengers or cargo to travel independently or together in one or more carriers, and are not typically limited to any particular function or format. For example, at any given time, an interstate highway may accommodate cars carrying one or more people, buses carrying several passengers and their belongings, delivery trucks hauling a variety of packages or parcels, police cars or fire trucks operated by one or more public authorities, and any other type of vehicle to travel thereon, at various speeds. Similarly, a rail network allows both passenger trains and freight trains to travel on a point-to-point basis on the same sets of rails. Ferries, cruise ships, container ships and tankers coexist on open bodies of water such as rivers, bays or oceans, and passenger planes, cargo aircraft (both manned and unmanned), fighter jets and helicopters frequently traverse the skies.
Each of these open transportation networks may be subjected to delays of various forms, types or causes, which may ultimately hinder or halt the passage of some or all travel thereon. For example, a traffic jam on a secondary road will slow or stop not only passenger cars but also school buses, delivery vans or ambulances intending to pass thereby. Similarly, a train derailment or maintenance issue on a critical track between two hubs or stations of a rail network will cause any trains traveling thereon to be similarly backed up, regardless of whether such trains carry passengers or cargo. Stormy seas or a lack of available slips or moorings may prevent sailboats, fishing boats and cargo ships from pulling into a port, just as hurricanes or tornadoes may ground any type of aircraft.
Moreover, in order to travel from an origin to a destination, a passenger or an object such as a container having one or more items therein must typically travel within multiple transportation networks and along multiple modes of transit. For example, a passenger intending to fly from one city to another may be required to walk to a taxicab, ride in the taxicab to a train station, take a train to an airport before flying to another airport, where he or she must complete a similar process in reverse prior to reaching the other city. Similarly, a parcel delivered from a warehouse or like facility is occasionally delivered by hand to a car or a truck, then to an airport, a seaport or a train station via the van or truck, and to a corresponding airport, seaport or train station, from which the item is typically delivered to a customer by another car or truck. While passengers or cargo are in transit within any of these open transportation networks or traveling by any manner, such passengers or cargo may potentially restrict or otherwise cause a delay to any other passengers or cargo traveling within such networks or by any such manner, regardless of whether such passengers or such cargo are traveling to a common destination or according to a common purpose or function.